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mediately into the river’s bed, and for 312 miles followed its stony rocky, upward course, crossing it in that distance than twenty times. Frequently the cliffs obliged us to crawl round them through the thick tangled cover, again taking to the slippery stony bed of the river, to leave it shortly for another scramble. Fortunately it was all rather up hill, which lessened the chance of falling. I know nothing more trying and disagreeable to walk over than smooth water-worn slabs of rock, and big boulders. It would be impossible to give an idea of the extraordinary steepness of the mountain sides as they rose from the river course, many of them crowned by magnificent castellated rocks, 2,000 feet above us. Marvellously grand they looked, covered with the lovely autumn tints of the oak, maple, &c. After three and a-half miles along the river, we breasted the hill, and after a continuous climb of more than three hours, reached the crest. Striking off along an irregular plateau, we arrived at our destination at half-past three, being still four miles from the summit of Odai Yama.
The mass of mountains we had now reached, 4200 feet above the level, spread out for a great distance, in an irregular plateau, here and there varied by rises 500 or 600 feet high, and traversed everywhere by numerous streams.
The highest peak on this singular table land was the spot I wished to reach, and is called Odai Yama.
The whole of this immense extent of mountain is covered with primeval forest; generally there is no underwood, but a soft carpet of the greenest moss covers the ground. The trees are likewise coated with moss and lichen. As I gazed upon the great stems of these self-planted and never disturbed trees, all I may say of good size, and most of them of grand proportions, I could not help internally ejaculating, “What a waste of Timber!”
Five years since, the Japanese Government decided to form a settlement on this space of table-land, although there exists no way or means of getting there except by climbing the steepest and most precipitous mountains imaginable. They cleared away—or rather merely cut
